What has been done today has been commanded by the LORD in order to make atonement on your behalf.
Parallel translations
- WEB What has been done today, so Yahweh has commanded to do, to make atonement for you.
- KJV As he hath done this day, so the LORD hath commanded to do, to make an atonement for you.
- NKJV As he has done this day, so the Lord has commanded to do, to make atonement for you.
- NASB The Lord has commanded us to do as has been done this day, to make atonement on your behalf.
- NLT Everything we have done today was commanded by the Lord in order to purify you, making you right with him.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Moses explains that what was done that day, by the LORD's command, was to make atonement for them. The ordination rites accomplished atonement for the priests.
Overview
The ceremony not only consecrated but also atoned for the priests, since even they needed cleansing from sin. This shows the comprehensive nature of the ordination. It magnifies the contrast with Christ, the sinless High Priest who needed no atonement for Himself yet provides it for us.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 3
- Heb 7:27Unlike the other high priests, He does not need to offer daily sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the sins of the people; He sacrificed for sin once for all when He offered up Himself.
- Heb 10:11–12Day after day every priest stands to minister and to offer again and again the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.
- Heb 7:16one who has become a priest not by a law of succession, but by the power of an indestructible life.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Every sacrifice, every priest, and every day of atonement points beyond itself to the one perfect offering and the great High Priest who, by his own blood, makes the unclean holy once for all.
How Leviticus 8:34 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.